I love the analog comment on one of our DIY fliers, especially when related to Marshall McCluhan because he once said, “I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.“
Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. He wrote:
Memes (discrete units of knowledge, gossip, jokes and so on) are to culture what genes are to life. Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes.
He also said, “The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.”
The digital meme reassures in uncertain times but is a closed feedback loop. A good meme is humorous with some verity and the viral apparatus of social media. It shuts down discourse and is circulated in algorithmic vacuums of like-minded avatars. It is a salve for confirmation bias, a brief conclusion, a foolproof amuse-bouche for the choir.
McCluhan, himself, said, “Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition”
But patterns change and the simple absolute meme has a shelf-life, vulnerable in its oneness to the cruel tick of time.
In “The End of Memes or McCluhan 101,” an article in Medium,
Memes are “democratic” and psychographically weaponized: Unlike one-size-fits-all propaganda, you get to choose between Coke or Pepsi. Memes are meaningless and you can’t argue with them. Just like television. Just do it! (Don’t,think about it.)
To use McLuhan’s own terminology, memes have now become obsolete. By saying this, McLuhan was pointing to a special kind of death, a state in which something is everywhere but is no longer psychologically consequential. Walking dead, if you will. Memes today are like George Romero’s zombies coming to eat our brains, and increasingly, we all recognize this. We are “getting out” and perhaps even being “woke” as we wise up to the end of memes.
